fanaticalprospector

Student

Advice for a Sophomore Student Eager for a SaaS Sales Job

Hi Bravado Community!

I am currently a sophomore in university looking to break into SaaS sales. Although I do not have any previous sales experience, I am competitive and hardworking by nature as proven by my GPA (3.91/4.00). I have read sales books such as "SPIN Selling" and "Fanatical Prospecting" and I am all about it!

Recently, I have been cold emailing with videos to hiring managers at companies I would like to work at this summer. All of these companies are start-ups. I was hoping the video outreach would be enough to stand out of the crowd, but it was not. (Example video prospect: REDACTED)

To my surprise, many companies actually do not take on summer interns. I have mostly gotten no replies or rejects as many companies require full time availability throughout the year. Since I am only available part-time through school months and full-time in the summer, it is no doubt that companies do not want to spend time training me.

Although I have faced back to back rejection, I am tunnel vision'd in on my end goal.

I would love if anyone has any advice for a sophomore like me or knows anyone looking for a highly motivated SDR to join them summer.

I would love a mentor in the industry - feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn (REDACTED)!

🎈 Mentorship

☁️ Software Tech

14

26 comments

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funcoupons

WR Officer

10

👑

Don’t post identifying info like your full name or photos/videos of yourself in here.

I don’t think you’re going to find many (if any) companies open to hiring you in your current situation. It takes a few months just to train SDRs in product knowledge/software/the company’s own approach. They want people who are going to make them money, and most of the time people they can train up to an AE role in 6-12 months time. It’s not worth it for them to take you on for a few months.

If you’re interested in sales, apply for companies that specifically hire summer students. A lot of these companies are a door to door B2C grind but you will get some sales experience for your resume. See if you’re still interested in sales once you graduate and if so, that’s when you should be applying for SDR roles. Or, if you truly feel sales is what you want to do for a career you can consider leaving college to pursue a full time job (especially if your area of study will not benefit you in sales which most of them won’t tbh…)

Best of luck.

hh456

Celebrated Contributor

4

sales

only im allowed to dox myself. its one of my best features.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

2

🦊

HA! Oh Grizz 🤣

hh456

Celebrated Contributor

2

sales

wifey is making dinner so i'm getting my comments in today.

funcoupons

WR Officer

1

👑

Lmao 💕

CuriousFox

WR Officer

3

🦊

She knows what she is talking about boo.

Upper_Class_SaaS

Politicker

5

Account Executive

Quit school, get an SDR job

hh456

Celebrated Contributor

2

sales

god damn i love it lol

fanaticalprospector

Good Citizen

0

Student

If only it was that easy to convince my parents. Although quitting school is a possibility, I like the idea that I am in school for registered nursing which would be a good backup incase sales does not pan out as I have hoped.

funcoupons

WR Officer

4

👑

Gonna be really tough to convince a company to bring you on at all with that area of focus. If you were in for an MBA or a tech focus, that could earn you points with the right company but nursing has nothing to do with sales.

Sales is a career, and a tough one at that. It’s not a part time job or back up gig.

Focus on the nursing degree you’re paying good money for and get a job in that field. If you don’t end up enjoying nursing, sales will always be there. Trying to learn a whole other trade (sales) while also being in nursing school is a waste of your time.

FormerStartupJobHopper

Tycoon

2

AE

Wait a minute, you're in school for nursing but want to go into sales? That makes zero sense. You should either finish school and committ to nursing and forget about sales, or drop out right now. You're wasting your time and money, big time

TheIncarceration

Politicker

1

SDR Manager

Totally agree with this ^

You're already 2 years into university, I'd try to make the most out of your studies. Higher education isn't cheap!

A sales role will always be available if nursing for whatever reason doesn't pan out

hh456

Celebrated Contributor

5

sales

Prepare to get black out drunk, wake up in your neighbors yard at 3am, slither across the street like the slimy scum you are so you can puke in your guest toilet the Saturday morning after the company party and then roll in on Monday feeling like shit and everyone acting like nothing happened.

welcome to sales!

funcoupons

WR Officer

2

👑

Rough weekend B?

hh456

Celebrated Contributor

2

sales

great weekend, yes

braintank

Politicker

2

Enterprise Account Executive

Learn Salesforce, Hubspot, and technology platforms. No startup wants to train an intern. Every startup needs an ambitious employee who knows how shit works.

hh456

Celebrated Contributor

1

sales

but he wants to be in sales, not sales ops

braintank

Politicker

0

Enterprise Account Executive

New grad with CRM knowledge is better candidate than new grad without it.

FormerStartupJobHopper

Tycoon

1

AE

Hey man, first of all this community is supposed to be annoymous. I don't care myself but you should probably remove your face and real name.

Secondly, love the hustle. However, and this may not be a popular opinion here, but I feel the personalized video was a little cheesy. Idk. If I was the hiring manager, I'd be like "this guy is hamming it up". Some of which is required in sales! And I get that the method you shared is all the rage on LinkedIn and what not. It just wouldn't necessarily work on me. Take that for what it's worth tho, I'm not a manager I'm an AE.

I also want to push back on the notion that SaaS companies do not hire summer interns. That is just not true. How many companies have you applied to? Tiny startups might not, but others will. I think you just haven't found the right one yet.

As a middle ground, maybe try your technique but only on companies that actually have postings for interns, not SDRs. You are probably right that you won't get an SDR gig til you graduate.

Finally, if you send vidoes, I'd dial it down half a notch on the enthusiasm. Idk how else to phrase that, but it can be a turn off for interviewers to have a feeling like the candidate is lying that they are super passionate about the product.

Diablo

Politicker

0

Sr. AE

There are many web that help you do a small SDR course (free) and they have tie-ups with many SaaS companies that end up hiring these candidates finishing these course. Might want to try. Not sure if they hire intern. All the best!

Sunbunny31

Arsonist

0

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

There are bigger companies that have summer interns and train very well, then bring the promising ones on after graduation. Big tech companies train well, and with that under your belt, you can stay with the large company for a bit or transition to a start up, if that is your passion. Startups need well trained people, which they will get if you’ve managed to get an internship or gone through an academy.
Thing is, I think they lean toward people who have finished their junior year, so that they have a year to go before graduation, so you might not be a good candidate just for that reason.
You do have an interesting field of study for someone leaning toward sales. What is it about sales that interests you?

Jewcan_Sam81

Politicker

0

Account Executive

Get your degree, who gives a shit about your GPA, nobody in the SaaS space cares and if they do run from that company as fast as you can. Get a job as an SDR/BDR/BDC/whatever the company calls it, crush it, and become an AE and make your $$$$

godpull54

Praised Answer

0

PDR

Quit university and find an entry level sales job. I wish someone had given me this advice. It would've saved me four years of not learning anything in sales @ university and I could've applied that time to dedicate solely on sales.

Austin

Celebrated Contributor

0

O&G O.G. - Sales Mgr. - NCSA

Due respect, and take this advice for what it’s worth - since you pointed to your college credentials (which is great - but, this is coming from a guy whose last full year in school was my freshman year in high school & a guy who hasn’t put together a resume since my first job in the oil field.
If you want to make a career in sales, you really only need to focus on one thing… selling yourself in every interaction.
If you win the room, you with the hearts and minds of your customers, play the game with integrity - i.e. send work to competitors when it’s a better fit, to help your customer out of a bind - you become the person the customer WANTS to call when he’s got a problem… you’ve won the account.
Get that commish. Rinse, lather, repeat.
…Again, take all that with a grain of salt, I’m just a regular ass hand in the oil field that’s been makin it up, one day at a time, for the past 14+ years.

SADNESSLieutenant

Politicker

0

Officer of ♥️

I got a job in saas sales as a sophomore in college but I quit studying to do it

0

Student

Go ahead and pick up a retail sales job for the summer. Ik it's quite the opposite of a prestige GS internship or white collar type... but the raw skills you build there are going to be HUGE for when you first apply to SDR roles.

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